New Delhi: The delay in setting up the organising committee for the 2010 Commonwealth Games could cost the country the high-profile event, a top sports official said here Tuesday.

Commonwealth Games Federation vice-president Randhir Singh, who is also the secretary general of the Indian Olympic Association, said the formation of the committee had already been delayed by over a year and if it was not formed at the earliest, the federation would have to take stringent action, including taking away the Games from India.

?We are already one year behind. We were supposed to form the committee by December 31, 2003. We have already asked for additional time to form the committee thrice and it is high time that the committee is formed,? he told reporters here Tuesday.

?If this delay continues, it is going to cost us the Games.?

The initial deadline was first extended to March 2004 and then June before India asked the CWG Federation to give them time till December 2004 to form the organising committee during the federation meeting in Athens in August.

However, the formation of the committee has been in jeopardy and insiders say it could be a result of the tussle between the government and the IOA on who should head it.

It may be recalled that a few months ago, sports minister Sunil Dutt had announced that the government had made him chairman of the organising committee to which the IOA had taken strong objections saying it was their prerogative to form a committee.

The IOA had also declared that its president Suresh Kalmadi would be the chairman of the organising committee, during their annual general body meeting in November and had been authorised to form the committee. But no headway has been made since then and with CWG Federation president Mike Fennel due to visit the national capital on February 2 to take stock of the preparations, the IOA is under tremendous pressure to form the committee before that. (PTI)